In a sea of swimming sharks, the two fight for the last bite of the school of fish. “‘People are circling around, and you have some people going the wrong way, which is really annoying,’ said Taylor Atkinson, a student at San Jose CityCollege, which has 1,300 spaces for 9,450 students. ‘It's a madhouse.’” Can college be a fair, progressive learning environment for students, without the necessary tools provided, such as books, a quiet place to study and adequate parking? Horace Mann, the person believed to have started school (1796-1859), created a system of statewide teachers with a foundation from the Prussian model, which was referred to the belief that everyone should have the rights to the same content of education. Back then it may have seemed like a fair request, but today this idealism has created new problems. One of the current problems of College schools worldwide is that students and adjunct teachers are unfairly taken advantage of everyday, paying a premium for parking, promised a spot, then discovering that parking is confusing and that there is not enough parking available for students who have payed. “At Minnesota's Normandale Community College, students are known to arrive at 6 a.m. to get parking and then study in their cars for two hours before class. Others idle outside classroom buildings during the winter and give rides to people in exchange for their parking spaces.” Student fees are the blood life of what keeps colleges in business. Students pay a premium for parking yet they are paying for a parking spots that does not exist. Parking services at colleges are allowing more parking spaces to be sold, then spaces that are available. “With just 2,000 spaces to serve 20,000 students and employees, Dalhousie, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, may have the most nightmarish campusparkingin North America. But it is not the only campus where frustrated motorists describe their experiences like something from Kafka. Call it auto-neuroticism.” Ratios of 1 parking spot for every 10 students/Adjunct teachers, “The perennial space dispute on practically every college campus is the one over parking--who gets to park where and for what reasons and at what cost. Parking spaces seem to be at a premium even more so than office and lab spaces. On some campuses, parkingpolicy has become an explosive issue, the cause of petitions, senate resolutions, and public protests.” (Olson 2014)
“With soaring prices (a permit at Toronto's Ryerson University costs a whopping $1,017), and in many cases demand that far exceeds supply, parking lots have become the fault lines of a battle between commuters who say they can't do away with their cars and university administrations trying to reduce traffic and pollution. And it's not just a student problem. Earlier this year, Dan Middle miss, a professor at Dalhousie University, quit his job of 30 years out of frustration with what he called a a "ridiculous" parking situation. The Halifax campus has only 2,000 parkingspaces for 20,000 students and staff. “Ridiculous" parkingsituation. The Halifax campus has only 2,000 parking spaces for 20,000 students and staff.” (Alini 2011) Parking can be very confusing on many campuses. Students have enough to worry about, without trying to decode the confusing parking labels at Weber State University. For example the A9 lot can easily mistaking for a W lot when signs are turned to only face drivers when they are leaving the lot, not entering the lot. Another scheme to get students to pay more for parking tickets and to take advantage of them. Weber State University is not the only school that has confusing parking systems. At Holland School located in Canada, the parking system is also not very functional. “Theparkinglot at the rear of the school, the former Lo-Food building, has had a confusingparkingconfiguration, with some of the spaces being designated as all-dayparkingwhile others have a two-hour limit.” Signage within theparkinglot was confusing and many motorists were ticketed for overtimeparking. City planner Murray Pinochuk told members of city council's police committee Wednesday that he believes all involved have reached a reasonable solution to the problem. "Right now, the lot has three front rows of all-dayparkingand two-hourparkingon the lot itself," he said. "We sat down with the HollandCollegepeople and downtown summer side people and we had a look at what we could do in order to ease theparkingsituation to accommodate both the downtown shoppers and the all-day requirement from thecollege." Like Murray Pinochuk thinks confusing students is the only reasonable parking solution for the Holland College and Weber State students and teachers are often put at a disadvantage when others need parking to shop downtown. Shopping at stores is good for the economy, but education is just as important, if not more important. Some students from around the U.S believe do not believe that they are not being taken advantage of or treated unfairly. Instead of students seeing parking as a problem they are finding solutions to the parking problems. In the article “Go with the Flow: Campus Traffic and Parking Solutions”, the article states that Research from The University of South Florida shows that reducing traffic congestion and pollution with changes in behavior of travel can help solve the parking problems. The University of Florida also suggests that instead of making wider roads or changing the traffic signals, that traffic can be improved by increasing the number of people in a single car and reducing the number or cars out on the road. Other problem solving techniques from the article “Go with the flow: Campus Traffic and Parking Solutions” include controlling University through traffic during the day, staggering classes throughout the day, offering incentives for those who walk or bike throughout the day, car sharing on campus, park at edges or the perimeter of campus, which can isolate the traffic to the perimeter of traffic. Organizing public space (college parking spots) can also be learned from the city square of Al Tahrir in Cairo Egypt, which is the most trafficked through roads east and west of the Nile River. The street layout is mostly radial and the square is the first downtown traffic exit directly after the bridge and has made it almost impossible for pedestrians to control or move through traffic. To improve the car traffic of Al Tahrir Square suggestions have been made to make plan similar to that of times square (separating areas or compartmenting) through strategic planning. The President of Chapman University also believes that students are not treated unfairly and believes that the perfect parking solution is to auction off permits. “’I read with interest’ "Taming the Parking Beast: the Options for Colleges," (The Chronicle, October 7). The experts you spoke with proposed many ideas for solving campus parkingdilemmas, including leasing spaces off campus; running transit shuttles; encouraging bicycling, carpooling, and vanpooling; forbidding freshmen to have cars, etc.Here at Chapman University, we believe we have come up with an innovative and fair solution that no one else has tried before: We auction off permits for the most desirable parking spaces. Working with faculty members in our Economic Science Institute, we created a falling-price auction for reserved permits and permits for our most central parking areas.” While these may all be good solutions to the growing college parking problems, any new problems, even as little as parking issues can be enough for a student to want to break down. A Student or adjunct teacher should be able to focus on school without having to face the challenge of fighting for a parking spot every day because it is unfair. Like school curriculum that should be accessible to everyone, aspects involved in student’s success should be fair as well.
References Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 595-600. Web. 8 Feb. 2009. Troop, Don. “Nobel? Sure. Parking Space? Maybe.” Chronicle of Higher Education Vol. 58 Issue 7, (2011): A1-A10. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. (Accessed 4/15/16) Olson, Gary A., “The Politics of Academic Space.” Chronicle of Higher Education Vol. 60 Issue 17, (2014): Web. 10 Jan. 2014 (Accessed 4/20/16) YARDIM, Mustafa Sinan., “Approaches for Sustainable Campus Parking Management at the YTU Central Campus Area.” Sigma: Journal of Engineering & Natural Sciences Vol. 33 Issue 4, (2015): p561-575. Web. 2015. Horan, KeriLee “Go With the Flow: Campus Traffic and Parking Solutions.” University Business. Vol. 13 Issue 5, (2010): p50-54 Alini, Erica. “War on cars” Maclean’s Vol. 124 Issue 43, (2011): p124-124. Web. 7 Nov. 2011. (Accessed 4/21/16) Carson, Mike. “Proposal to endparkingtrouble atcollegegoes to city council” The Guardian. The PROVINCE. (2005): Web. 7 Oct. 2005.
Cherry, Nathan. “Design For Revolution” Planning. Vol. 77, Issue 4, (2011): p22-24 Web. April 2011. (Accessed 4/21/16) Letter from president of university: Doti, James L. Chronicle of Higher Education Vol. 58 Issue 11, (2011): pA39-A39. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.
One of the current problems of College schools worldwide is that students and adjunct teachers are unfairly taken advantage of everyday, paying a premium for parking, promised a spot, then discovering that parking is confusing and that there is not enough parking available for students who have payed. “At Minnesota's Normandale Community College, students are known to arrive at 6 a.m. to get parking and then study in their cars for two hours before class. Others idle outside classroom buildings during the winter and give rides to people in exchange for their parking spaces.” Student fees are the blood life of what keeps colleges in business.
Students pay a premium for parking yet they are paying for a parking spots that does not exist. Parking services at colleges are allowing more parking spaces to be sold, then spaces that are available. “With just 2,000 spaces to serve 20,000 students and employees, Dalhousie, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, may have the most nightmarish campus parking in North America. But it is not the only campus where frustrated motorists describe their experiences like something from Kafka. Call it auto-neuroticism.” Ratios of 1 parking spot for every 10 students/Adjunct teachers,
“The perennial space dispute on practically every college campus is the one over parking--who gets to park where and for what reasons and at what cost. Parking spaces seem to be at a premium even more so than office and lab spaces. On some campuses, parking policy has become an explosive issue, the cause of petitions, senate resolutions, and public protests.” (Olson 2014)
“With soaring prices (a permit at Toronto's Ryerson University costs a whopping $1,017), and in many cases demand that far exceeds supply, parking lots have become the fault lines of a battle between commuters who say they can't do away with their cars and university administrations trying to reduce traffic and pollution. And it's not just a student problem. Earlier this year, Dan Middle miss, a professor at Dalhousie University, quit his job of 30 years out of frustration with what he called a a "ridiculous" parking situation. The Halifax campus has only 2,000 parking spaces for 20,000 students and staff. “Ridiculous" parking situation. The Halifax campus has only 2,000 parking spaces for 20,000 students and staff.” (Alini 2011)
Parking can be very confusing on many campuses. Students have enough to worry about, without trying to decode the confusing parking labels at Weber State University. For example the A9 lot can easily mistaking for a W lot when signs are turned to only face drivers when they are leaving the lot, not entering the lot. Another scheme to get students to pay more for parking tickets and to take advantage of them.
Weber State University is not the only school that has confusing parking systems. At Holland School located in Canada, the parking system is also not very functional.
“The parking lot at the rear of the school, the former Lo-Food building, has had a confusing parking configuration, with some of the spaces being designated as all-day parking while others have a two-hour limit.” Signage within the parking lot was confusing and many motorists were ticketed for overtime parking. City planner Murray Pinochuk told members of city council's police committee Wednesday that he believes all involved have reached a reasonable solution to the problem. "Right now, the lot has three front rows of all-day parking and two-hour parking on the lot itself," he said. "We sat down with the Holland College people and downtown summer side people and we had a look at what we could do in order to ease the parking situation to accommodate both the downtown shoppers and the all-day requirement from the college."
Like Murray Pinochuk thinks confusing students is the only reasonable parking solution for the Holland College and Weber State students and teachers are often put at a disadvantage when others need parking to shop downtown. Shopping at stores is good for the economy, but education is just as important, if not more important.
Some students from around the U.S believe do not believe that they are not being taken advantage of or treated unfairly. Instead of students seeing parking as a problem they are finding solutions to the parking problems. In the article “Go with the Flow: Campus Traffic and Parking Solutions”, the article states that Research from The University of South Florida shows that reducing traffic congestion and pollution with changes in behavior of travel can help solve the parking problems. The University of Florida also suggests that instead of making wider roads or changing the traffic signals, that traffic can be improved by increasing the number of people in a single car and reducing the number or cars out on the road.
Other problem solving techniques from the article “Go with the flow: Campus Traffic and Parking Solutions” include controlling University through traffic during the day, staggering classes throughout the day, offering incentives for those who walk or bike throughout the day, car sharing on campus, park at edges or the perimeter of campus, which can isolate the traffic to the perimeter of traffic.
Organizing public space (college parking spots) can also be learned from the city square of Al Tahrir in Cairo Egypt, which is the most trafficked through roads east and west of the Nile River. The street layout is mostly radial and the square is the first downtown traffic exit directly after the bridge and has made it almost impossible for pedestrians to control or move through traffic. To improve the car traffic of Al Tahrir Square suggestions have been made to make plan similar to that of times square (separating areas or compartmenting) through strategic planning.
The President of Chapman University also believes that students are not treated unfairly and believes that the perfect parking solution is to auction off permits.
“’I read with interest’ "Taming the Parking Beast: the Options for Colleges," (The Chronicle, October 7). The experts you spoke with proposed many ideas for solving campus parking dilemmas, including leasing spaces off campus; running transit shuttles; encouraging bicycling, carpooling, and vanpooling; forbidding freshmen to have cars, etc.Here at Chapman University, we believe we have come up with an innovative and fair solution that no one else has tried before: We auction off permits for the most desirable parking spaces. Working with faculty members in our Economic Science Institute, we created a falling-price auction for reserved permits and permits for our most central parking areas.”
While these may all be good solutions to the growing college parking problems, any new problems, even as little as parking issues can be enough for a student to want to break down.
A Student or adjunct teacher should be able to focus on school without having to face the challenge of fighting for a parking spot every day because it is unfair. Like school curriculum that should be accessible to everyone, aspects involved in student’s success should be fair as well.
References
Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 595-600. Web. 8 Feb. 2009.
Troop, Don. “Nobel? Sure. Parking Space? Maybe.” Chronicle of Higher Education Vol. 58 Issue 7, (2011): A1-A10. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. (Accessed 4/15/16)
Olson, Gary A., “The Politics of Academic Space.” Chronicle of Higher Education Vol. 60 Issue 17, (2014): Web. 10 Jan. 2014 (Accessed 4/20/16)
YARDIM, Mustafa Sinan., “Approaches for Sustainable Campus Parking Management at the YTU Central Campus Area.” Sigma: Journal of Engineering & Natural Sciences Vol. 33 Issue 4, (2015): p561-575. Web. 2015.
Horan, KeriLee “Go With the Flow: Campus Traffic and Parking Solutions.” University Business. Vol. 13 Issue 5, (2010): p50-54
Alini, Erica. “War on cars” Maclean’s Vol. 124 Issue 43, (2011): p124-124. Web. 7 Nov. 2011. (Accessed 4/21/16)
Carson, Mike. “Proposal to end parking trouble at college goes to city council” The Guardian. The PROVINCE. (2005): Web. 7 Oct. 2005.
Cherry, Nathan. “Design For Revolution” Planning. Vol. 77, Issue 4, (2011): p22-24 Web. April 2011. (Accessed 4/21/16)
Letter from president of university: Doti, James L. Chronicle of Higher Education Vol. 58 Issue 11, (2011): pA39-A39. Web. 4 Nov. 2011.